The Dog Empire and the Screaming Prophets
by NorthWillowleaf
Summary: A short story about the events around the planet Bolumeri that cause the death of the empire of a fairly famous Planetoid race, The Dog Empire


**The Dog Empire and the Screaming Prophets:**

Long ago a great empire lived, the dog empire, they were strong, intelligent, and adventurist, their empire was very successful, trade was good and their people were happy in their ways, but for all their success they were not expansionists and the furthest they got was sending cargo ships on long trade runs, but for the most part their people were based around three planets, and their empire around only one, the capital city and figurehead of the dog race was a magnificent sight, the cities were grand and tall, their country sides filled with peaceful farms, and in the center the grand council and the court of laws were in the tall shining city, but the city and further more their race was most known for one main thing, at least that is this stood out the most, it was known as the Screaming Dog Prophets and the court of farsight.

The Prophets of course didn't actually scream, but they were known as this because they could not speak like the other dogs, the prophets lacked normal speech centers like the other dogs, their minds were believed to work differently all together, they could not produce normal sound ether, for years those born with this trait were thought to have been cursed or ill in some way, but some with eyes the color of mercury could hear these few dogs, most had never developed normally or learned properly because they were not cared for like a normal dog, but when a prophet and listener were born into the same town and both matured together, the listener would speak and listen to the prophet child, one day the listener child told others of dreams and friend had told him and as they came true attention was caught, this is what we understand to be the origin of known prophets in the dog culture, it's not known how the listeners and prophets communicate, but there is a special bond between the two, the prophets have been depicted over the ages by listeners as acting confused or distracted, as if they are in crowds of people trying to listen and yell back to the listeners over all the noises, the prophets were described to be only at peace in their dreams, where they have so much control they can not only gather information from over the nearby stars in seconds, but link their minds and communicate to the listeners instantly, the listeners describe messages from the prophets in the night as howling and screaming, like a tormented soul trying to call for help.

Despite such a strange system, the prophets soon became recognized as a valuable tool, over the years their numbers steadily decreased, but with new born pups being spoken too and taught by listeners, these few prophets began having a far better control and understanding, as well as a better form of communication with the listeners, the empire soon declared a court and called it the court of farsight, where the prophets are kept safe constantly watching the surrounding, this however caught the attention of other races quickly as much as they tried to hide the secret, soon the were a target, and although they never abused the power, the empire new they were still in great danger even keeping it quiet as they had, prophets spoke of future paths, of other races growing angry and acting, but soon a discussion was made with a closely related species that had always traded with them, The Coyote Empire, the coyotes formed an alliance with the dogs and swore to defend them as best they could, the dogs having a weaker civilization could not refuse the offer.

Years later a new prophecy was released though, mimicking ancient stories from prophets of those days, the set of new prophecy told of a death of their people and the world they lived on, unlike other prophecies this was told in certainty, of a close date when none would survive

Uproar spread across the council as well as the cities, defense heads were worried of the prophecies and wanted them to act, the listeners were also in fear of these certainties, they spoke with the council many times, the prophecies they brought and the discussions the pressed on the council continued to get worse, until one night the vale was lowered and a clear prophecy on this event emerged, in the night the prophet rose from his bed, staring out the window into the sky with his shiny dark gray eyes, his head went crazy with thoughts, images, and words he could barely process as they arrived into his brain, a moment later the listener awoke in fear from a loud shriek piercing his dreams, the dog crept over to a paper and with the moonlight lighting his silvery eyes he madly wrote every word and his interpretation as he was told them, "Through the shine of Madoluse's twin the ground is lit with light and shadows in the darkness, the warrior that marches towards our home stops not for rest along his journey, he continues, he persists, through darkness and through light, through hellfire and frozen darkness he persists, he will not sleep, he will not rest, the souless warrior continues on his way, only days are left until his arrive, until the moons of Mornerdise pass one another in their dance and spin, when our people with die among the fires of his wake, when he will arrive and the sky with burn to ashes, He is coming!"

The Prophecy was kept quiet among the council as they decided, it had stirred them all up and made them change their minds, now ideas flooded back and forth on what must be done to prevent the prophecy, or at least change the circumstances of which is occurs, soon another prophecy came though, again in the night the prophecy spoke of the being coming now through the fires of Hesphesteiaos a nearby planet, it spoke more in detail of the being, it's body not of a flesh, but it's mind not of machine, the being was timeless and ageless as well from a lost kingdom in search of a rabbit hole, the council wasted no more time and the defense heads were informed, a strategy was made and they started planning for whatever was necessary, but the generals were shocked on what to expect, not only did the description shed little light, but when they drew their map they soon realized the being described by another prophet as having no chariot and no horse to carry it on it's way had seemed to have traveled through most of their charted space in one night, something none of their ships could manage, the prophecies say the being is bond to walk forever and ever until it finds it's gateway, it's hole in space

A message was sent to the Coyote Nation requesting help as soon as possible, their planets were near and help was but a night away, but the danger grew more, the dog's largest means of transport was being used for trade and to fight seemed to be doomed by prophecy for them to lose, as it grew nighttime more prophets before their sleep told of the warrior crossing the plains of ice and snow in the shadow of their hand, soon they realized what they had been told, shocked the general in command told them it must be a mistake, the being could not have passed through the gas giant in the system unharmed, the gravity surely would have crushed even the strongest of ships, and for this thing to go through the planet losing no time on it's travel seemed puzzling, but they had no time to question these reports, it was all they had, and it was never wrong, soon the Coyote ship arrived in orbit, cooling it's engines it slowly moved towards the planet in a weaker drive, as night fell the moons of Mornerdise began to pass one another looking as one through any viewing scope, this meant the warrior as it was called was near, the last prophecy came out telling them exactly where to place defenses, but the words of the third prophet in this set were more troubling "He has arrived, the warrior untouched by heat and cold, life and death, the stranger, the wanderer, the traveler of the stars has come to our planet, he has found his gateway, his key, his mission, and now our blood with turn this key, our world will crumble, our seas will boil, our skies will burn like no battle seen before, every step we take from our own knowledge of these events will only change our future towards this fate, He is here, He has come, three bells ring in the wind, The end"

The skies turned black with thunder over the defenses as they prepare for whatever is coming, from the sky a blast of thunder comes down from the being striking through the sky, the soldiers look about aiming everywhere they can look, now in panic waiting for something, then from out of nowhere a round object uncloaks shooting out a blast knocking a soldier to the ground in a blast of smoke and fire, as quickly and fire vanishes from into the air so does the glimpse of the being, two more a struck down effortlessly and the soldiers get a sight and begin firing, the being with ease flies around the blasts as if they aren't even there quickly killing one by one, until the remaining soldiers are hiding behind nearby cover, as if they are mere distractions the being continues leaving them to cower, it flies about the the center a small park in the middle of the city, and empty area of tile and stone, the being stares into the sky and lets out a horrible wave of sound, every living being nearby falls to the ground in pain, but it quickly dissipates into an echo into the sky and out into space

Only minutes pass before a massive ship appears in the sky over the planet, the much smaller Coyote ship quickly searches it's shared databases for a result, and also scans the ship as fast as it can, the coyote commander stares at the results in amazement: what are the results from the database, the scans show no crew on that ship, from one of the control men a reply is quickly spoken: The ship is reported as something called a Creoereic Fleetship, there's little information on it, but from information gathered by the foxes from another race it's warned against any encounter with such a ship, it says to immediately withdraw and flee.

Just then the ship lets out a huge beam from it's tip that shoots down to the world penetrating the atmosphere and smashing into the world, Coyote Commander: we can't just leave them to attack, the dogs are helpless down there, begin firing, we don't have a choice, within seconds the massive ship without pausing it's attack, turns secondary beam gun and targets the coyote ship, just as the first blasts hit the shield uneffecting the Creoereic ship, beams shoot out instantly reducing the coyote ship to exploding debris, back on the world the beam has melted the surface and formed a great storm around the city, the city is in rubble tearing it's self apart, and in the center the ground melting and swirling into a vortex, soon the molten liquid falls forming a hole in the center of the vortex which continues to get deeper and deeper, the Creoereic floats unaffected by the heat above the scene in the center right next to the beam, soon the world heats and the waves of fire and wind spread over the world tearing the surface clean and melting the debris, the dog capital now no more, and the world forming into a new purpose...

Continued in a later story.


End file.
